A CRAMPED room in a homeless hostel, where all the other ­residents are men, is what Shola O’Donnell and her three-year-old son call home.

Shola and Cody have been forced to live for months in the rundown ­property, which has no security or night porter.

At least one resident has addiction issues and another has mental health problems.

Shola, 40, said: “I lie in the dark, crying with my little boy sleeping beside me. There is no space and we are both scared being in a house full of men, who are strangers. This is no way for a child to live.”

It is a shocking sight in 21st century Scotland to see a small boy crammed in a room with no space to play.

It is also illegal under a 2004 order banning the use of B&Bs and other unsuitable accommodation for young families such as the O’Donnells.

For the privilege of having ­Midlothian Council house this mother and child in misery, the taxpayer pays £500 a month in rent via housing benefit.

Rent at the private property in Gorebridge, Midlothian, is twice that of the council house they were evicted from in March over £4000 rent arrears.

The cramped sitting room (Image: Gordon Jack/Scotimage.com)

Evicting them cost the council, and the taxpayer, £15,000.

When asked what he thinks of living there, Cody said: “Bad men. Don’t like it. Bad men, I run away.”

There is no evidence that the men are “bad” but Cody is scared because he doesn’t know them.

Life is grim in the room where Cody and his mum have lived for three months but the council plan to evict them again next week.

They are refusing alternative ­accommodation, which will effectively leave them on the streets.

The authority said they should find a private let. For that, they need a deposit of a month’s rent. Shola lives on benefits of just over £100 a week. The council also refused to offer a reference due to the arrears.

The property she and her son live in has six rooms, five of which are occupied by single men.

The council say they have been risk assessed but the head of housing refused to tell this newspaper what risks they are assessed for.

In the hostel, Shola is not allowed to have friends or family to visit, although strangers visit the men.

Dry foods such as cereal are stored on top of a ­wardrobe, with a few plates and cutlery kept inside. There is a small fridge and a kettle in the corner.

Cramped kitchen (Image: Gordon Jack/Scotimage.com)

An en-suite bathroom has a shower but Cody has to be given a bath in a communal bathroom.

The room is far from child-friendly. For months, the fireplace was broken, with tile shards a concern.

Long cords hang from blinds on the windows, posing a strangulation risk to small children, particularly one like Cody, who loves to jump like his favourite computer character, Mario.

There is a gas cooker downstairs but Shola has nowhere to keep Cody safe if she makes a meal. He wants to run around and she can’t leave him alone up in the room.

She won’t leave ­valuables there as the door has only a primitive latch.

Sometimes she eats at her elderly parents’ house or with her sister. Mostly, she has to rely on fast food.

To give Cody space to play, she takes him to the park, where she imagines living in their own home again.

She said: “All I want is for Cody to play safely in a room of his own. I want to be able to bath him, cook a meal for him, give him a normal life.”

Enrolling him in nursery is impossible because they have no address.

There is a garden at the hostel but it is overgrown and addicts use it to inject heroin. Shola can’t take the risk of Cody walking on a needle.

A small communal living room is cold and messy. Sitting there with the men is not an option.

The main stairwell is overshadowed by a large boarded-up window. There is no stair carpet and there is unsightly patched plaster on the walls.

Since moving into the room, Shola has lost a stone and a half and formerly well-behaved Cody has become difficult to control.

She said: “He is just not the same child. He tosses and turns at night and he throws tantrums. He has started picking the skin from the top of his fingers. He is clearly stressed.

“I am so anxious all the time. I don’t want to cry in front of Cody but I feel life is now so hopeless.”

This week, Shola visited the social work department to ask for help. They said there was nothing they could do because she was raising Cody well.

She is a former heroin user who fought her addiction and has been clean of the drug for five years.

However, she suffers from emotional problems and anxiety as a result of abusive relationships.

The £4000 she owes the council was run up after she didn’t fill in the correct housing benefit form, which left her liable for half of her rent.

It was also claimed a former partner was living with her, despite her showing proof to the contrary.

The debt grew when the council told her she must pay their legal costs.

Shola didn’t open her mail for weeks because she was so stressed that she put her “head in the sand”. She said: “I should have been on top of things but I needed support and things got out of control. Surely we don’t deserve to be punished like this.”

The council have a duty of care to any tenant who is struggling to cope. They have not taken into account a direct debit set up last December, which pays weekly towards the debt.

They breached the Unsuitable Accommodation Order 2004 by putting them in the hostel in the first place.

This newspaper was instrumental in helping housing charity Shelter’s campaign bring about the change.

In 2011 and 2012, there were 32 breaches of the order, five of them in Midlothian.

Shelter are backing Shola and are taking the council to court to make them answerable for the breach and force them to offer suitable ­alternative accommodation.

They also say Shola was entitled to have the rent from her council house paid in full because she was on income support.

Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “Midlothian Council were in breach of the law when they placed the family here. They have washed their hands of their duty to house the family.

“I urge them to review their decision in order to help Shola and Cody escape the tragedy of repeat homelessness.

“Scotland’s chronic housing shortage is forcing too many homeless children to live in cramped, or damp and ­sometimes dangerous housing.”

Midlothian Council said Shola should have contacted them for help.

A spokesman added: “Miss O’Donnell is in temporary accommodation as a result of being evicted for substantial rent arrears accumulated over a long period of time.

“She has been accommodated at her current address beyond the required 28 days to allow her to make her own arrangements, which she has yet to do.”